Staceyann Chin writes poignantly at the Huffington Post about the joys, mishaps and struggles of being a single, lesbian working mother. Some days it feels like no one has ever been so tired or stressed.
When you love your kid, and you wanted your kid, and you had so many people telling you that you shouldn't (have) had a kid alone, it's hard admitting, much less articulating/publicizing the challenges you face being a single, artist, lesbian, mom. I imagine that some of the difficulties are not that different from the working mother who happens to be partnered to some working man or woman, but some days it feels like no one has ever been this tired, or this stressed, or this in need of someone to distract your needy toddler while you shower, or take a dump or just sit and play one mindless round of Candy Crush Saga on the very expensive and very smart phone, on which you have not been able to check one email or text one person all day — preoccupied as you have been with taking walks or doing laundry and making oatmeal (which your 18-month-old will spit out) or cutting apples (which she will toss at you), or wiping up spill after spill after milky, juicy, poopy spill.
I tip my wilted hat to the women who keep a spotless house in the face of a full day of work at the office and more than one small child in the home. I would like to sit at their feet and beg them to teach me the secret of their super human abilities.
And I should pause from my woe-is-the-life-of-the-single-mama-rant to say I am really enjoying being a mom. I need to say it in anticipation of the new-age-positive-thinking-optimists who will say I am not at peace with the process because I am not channeling my inner Zen or tapping into the vast outer energies that balance planet Earth and its surrounding constellations, or those who will critique my frustrations as regret, or sorrow, or back-pedaling on the decision to have a child outside of a partnership. I. AM. ENJOYING. MOTHERHOOD.
Read Staceyann Chin's entire piece at the Huffington Post.
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